Liberal MP Joe Francis has conceded defeat after failing to secure enough votes to keep in parliament.
The Minister for Emergency Services, Veterans, Fisheries and Corrective Services had hoped to scrape over the line but as counting of the votes progressed his opponent Labor’s Yaz Mubarakai surged ahead.
On election night there had been speculation that Francis may replace Colin Barnett as Liberal party leader and be the aggressive voice the party will need to be an effective opposition.
In the final week of the campaign Francis published a video describing the Safe Schools anti-bullying program as something that was delivered to four year old children. The MP suggested its content included children being told they could change their gender daily, and that they had two ‘virginities’.
The WA contractor for the program, and the Safe Schools national office confirmed to OUTinPerth that in Western Australia the program has not been accessed by any primary schools, and that none of the content described by the politician was in their materials.
The MP did not respond to media inquiries questioning the accuracy of his claims.
Francis took to the airwaves on radio station 6PR to deliver a damning assessment of why the Liberals were hit by an election wipe-out on Saturday night.
Describing the party’s election campaign as “dysfunctional”, Francis said the party should have dumped Colin Barnett as Premier last year. Francis said the Premier had failed to talk about important issues in the final days of the campaign.
Several strategic errors were highlighted including not publicly apologising for broken election promises including the failure to build light rail and the Ellenbrook railway line.
Francis said the federal Liberal party had not helped the local campaign, noting that Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull came to town with an expectation he’d suggest a way to improve Western Australia’s GST revenue, but left without making any commitment.
With Francis now joining five other Minister who lost their seats on Saturday night, speculation on who will be the party’s next leader has now turned to Treasurer Mike Nahan and deputy leader Liza Harvey.
Prior to joining the parliament in 2008 Francis had been a small business owner and a submariner.
OIP Staff
